A long history of lies

Written By: - Date published: 7:33 am, November 3rd, 2011 - 17 comments
Categories: john key, leadership, phil goff - Tags:

Phil Goff did very well, in the first televised debate, to put Key’s lying front and centre to the electorate. It was a risky tactic (witness Key’s attempt to play the “dignity of office” card), but Goff pulled it off. Most of the headlines following the debate focused on the liar claim. Key tried a different tactic in The Press Debate last night, making light of the issue (“that’s cool”). I wonder if that will work any better for him.

Probably not, because the fact of the matter is that Key has a history of lying that goes a long way back. Almost his first significant act on the NZ political scene was to lie. In 2003 when Brash challenged English for the leadership Key said he supported English but then he went and voted for Brash. After that was the infamous Hollow Men smoking gun email, which Key claimed that he never read.  Key described global warming as a “complete and utter hoax”, in 2005 and then in 2006 he said “I firmly believe in climate change and always have”.  On one occasion even his usually faithful fan Audrey Young had to tell Key off for lying, and John Campbell was famously driven to describing him as “As slippery as a snake in wet grass”.

Here are some of the major stand-outs (and I’m reminded again how painful some of this video footage is!).  Key lied on:

Then there’s the long string of more ordinary lies on: the BMWs, the cycleway, the smacking debate, New Zealanders’ earnings, the economy, and so on, and so on.

That’s quite a record for a first term PM.  In the midst of an election campaign it is entirely appropriate to examine Key’s record (and the performance of his government in general).  Now is the right time to be asking, do we really want a second term of this?

17 comments on “A long history of lies ”

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  1. pollywog 1
    3 November 2011 at 8:14 am

    Plain and simple…The man cannot be trusted.

    Here’s a message for the elctorate. Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on you.

    Shame on Key !!!

    • mike 1.1
      3 November 2011 at 2:28 pm

      I think you got that saying the wrong way around. It should be “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”

      At least you did better than GW Bush:

  2. Blue 2
    3 November 2011 at 8:28 am

    Yeah, it was pretty funny last night when Goff called Key on all his broken promises and Key’s response was ‘well, people can judge me on my record’. The problem is that Key’s record when it comes to telling the truth isn’t that good.

    • pollywog 2.1
      3 November 2011 at 8:33 am

      Cool…the dude’s got a record coming out ?

      Duet with Suzanne Paul is it ? Remake of the ‘blue monkey’ ?

      • felix 2.1.1
        3 November 2011 at 8:49 am

        Haha ever checked the credits on that recording p? A few interesting surnames such as “Runga” and “Free” are represented.

        • pollywog 2.1.1.1
          3 November 2011 at 9:02 am

          Nah…never ever made it to the end.

          I do remember digging on the Blow monkey’s scene with this tune in the side bar of the John Key theme tune blue monkey…

          It doesn’t have to be this way.

      • Mac1 2.1.2
        3 November 2011 at 9:18 am

        Breaking news. John Key has released a record. Tracks on it include remakes of the Eagles’ “Lying Eyes,” Cream’s “Politician,” Denver’s “Leaving on a Jet Plane” and Woody Guthrie’s “So Long It’s Been Good To Know You.”

        The eponymous “What shall we do with a drunken PM” should be a chart-topper. A rewrite of “What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor,” it has such memorable lines as “Put him in a long boat with Captain Bligh,” (full chorus provided by backing vocal group “The Brashmen”) and “Cut off his ***** with a cut-throat razor” (backing from the Christchurch Cathedral Choir.)

        Expected date of blessed release, November 26, 2011.

      • bbfloyd 2.1.3
        3 November 2011 at 12:59 pm

        i heard it’s a remake of that old standard “stacks on the mill” sung as a duet with paul henry..

        [lprent: But but isn’t this the new standard… 😈 ]

  3. thejackal 3
    3 November 2011 at 8:51 am

    The trick is to not embolden the liar… by voting for him.

  4. mike 4
    3 November 2011 at 4:28 pm

    I didn’t see it but you’re telling me that Goff listed Key’s broken promises and Key responded with ‘well, people can judge me on my record’? Your record of keep/breaking promises? Isn’t that kinda what Goff was doing? It’s kind of a “I don’t have an answer to that, so I’m just going to shrug my shoulders, say no comment and let people think what they want coz they already love me anyway so I don’t really care.” answer is it not?

    I hope it’s alright but I’d like to repost Bill’s words from the “Debate Highlights” thread:

    “I can’t for the world of me understand why people ascribe attributes such as ‘statesmanlike’ and ‘relaxed’ to John Key.

    To me he has essentially three or four expressions/attitudes. And all of them seem to distil to marks of disdain/couldn’t give a fuck and a variation of mememememe!

    1. The multi furrowed brow avec le intense stare. (I’m guessing some read that as concern.) I read it as “you’re fucking me over, nobody fucks me over and I’d ‘have you’ for that if I could.” (His glower being mis-read as intense concentration)

    2. The middle distance stare with the supercilious grin. Again, (guessing) some see this as an intelligent, silent dismissal of what is being said. I see it as “Ooh. I know a smart arsed manufactured line to use in response to that one off by heart.”

    3. The smiling juttery puppet routine delivery like he’s some 13 year old school kid giving an answer in class and expecting ‘gold stars’ on his chart for being so smart.

    4. The not so smiling, little more juttery puppet routine delivery where he’s trying to deliver lines learned by rote, but has no idea what meanings or implications lie beneath the words he’s reciting.”

    Well said. Relaxed? Statesmanlike? Are you joking? He looks like a naughty schoolkid who’s mega-impressed with his own ability get people to buy his BS.

    To 1. above I’d add “The Snarl”. Watch closely when Goff starts attacking Key and Key glances at him. Sometimes he can’t hold it back for a second and a grimace of hatred comes out, just briefly. Hi John.

    John Key: B-grade sociopath. Just so you know what an A-grade sociopath looks like when he’s lying, see here:

  5. travellerev 5
    4 November 2011 at 11:33 am

    John Key is a pathological liar. Here is an open letter to “journalist” Eugene Bingham from the NZHerald I wrote in 2008. The “unauthorised biography” article I link too had five pages removed after I send it to him and all of the information removed had to do with his banking history. There is a lot John Key does not want us to know. I have hard copies and a pdf and will up date my blog with this in the weekend. Please share this with all your John Key voting mates:

    https://aotearoaawiderperspective.wordpress.com/2008/12/17/open-letter-to-eugene-bingham-or-would-you-have-voted-for-john-key-if-you-had-known/

  6. John Ansell 6
    4 November 2011 at 11:42 am

    All true about the lies, and then some (thinking of the Maori about-face).

    But Goff needed to chart the progression of those lies a lot more forcefully to drive the message into voters’ minds. That’s what a Clark or Muldoon would have done.

    Goff comes across as a nice enough guy – not too old, as some say – but niceness is Key’s brand. Labour needs to project a contrasting attribute.

    And what a giggle that they feel so desperate they have to play the ‘responsible management’ card. With that sort of attitude (eg to super), maybe a Labour government wouldn’t be so bad, though I can’t see the responsible approach extending much beyond Goff and maybe Parker.

    But all that said, if Winston can eke out another 0.3% and the Greens don’t fall for Key’s charms, Phil Goff could easily have the last laugh.

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